Every June 17, the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is celebrated, a date proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in 1994 to raise awareness of the threat posed by these two problems, especially in developing countries, and the need to address them.

In 2023, the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought aims to highlight the existing gender inequality in access rights to land and its associated assets. Thus, under the slogan “Woman. Their lands. Their Rights”, aims to raise awareness of the special impact of desertification, land degradation and drought on women and girls and the barriers they face in decision-making on land-related issues. In addition, this year’s theme highlights women’s contributions to sustainable land management and promotes the land rights of women and girls globally.

According to UN data, the occurrence and duration of droughts has increased by 29% since 2000. Currently, there are more than 2.3 billion people worldwide suffering from water scarcity problems, and it is estimated that droughts could affect more than three-quarters of the world’s population by 2050. On the other hand, desertification is a threat to ecosystems as it implies a decrease in soil productivity and a loss of capacity to host biodiversity and capture carbon dioxide. As a result, the UN estimates that, at the current rate, 90% of soils could be degraded by 2050.

For its part, with regard to this link with respect to gender inequality, the UN study “The differentiated effects of desertification, land degradation and drought on women and men” estimates that, despite the fact that almost half of the agricultural workforce globally is made up of women, Worldwide, only one in five of them own land. Along these lines, the study affirms that inequality is greater in those countries where women are still denied the right to inherit their husbands’ property due to laws and practices governed by custom, tradition or religion.

According to the same document, the lack of land titles that can be used as collateral hinders women’s access to loans, credit and the possibility of improving their education. In addition, this reduces their recognition as women farmers and increases social rejection of their participation in certain agricultural activities, which can also lead to their exclusion from decision-making spaces and less presence in positions of responsibility.

For all of the above, the report concludes that women are more affected than men by phenomena such as desertification and drought, because they have fewer tools to respond to their effects in terms of crop varieties, irrigation technologies and the different agricultural techniques to be used depending on the situation.

In Spain, the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) approved last year the National Strategy to Combat Desertification (ENLD).
National Strategy to Combat Desertification (ENLD)
within the framework of strengthening synergies with rural development policies, biodiversity protection and recognition of environmental services. This document establishes an action framework for the development of policies and actions related to this problem in our country, where 74 % of the territory is susceptible to desertification and 20 % of these lands are already considered degraded. Among the guiding principles of this Strategy, the inclusion of the gender perspective at all decision-making levels and in technical training, extension and awareness-raising activities related to the fight against desertification, particularly in territories with depopulation dynamics, stands out.

The MITECO Biodiversity Foundation supports projects and initiatives that contribute to the fulfilment of this Strategy, through the call for grants to promote research on biodiversity, corresponding to 2022, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (RTRP) financed by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

Thus, the project
ATLAS
project, led by the University of Alicante, is preparing an atlas of desertification in Spain, as a basis for the actions to be carried out in the ENLD and the implementation of Land Degradation Neutrality in Spain.

On the other hand, the “Study of the spatiotemporal dynamics of desertification in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula” (DESFUTUR), coordinated by the University of Cordoba, will characterize the dynamics of three key drivers of desertification in an aridity gradient: forest decay, forest fires and biological invasions. Finally, the project “Analysis and monitoring of climate aridity in Spain” (ARIDESP), promoted by the Aula Dei Experimental Station – Spanish National Research Council (EEAD-CSIC), will serve to improve current knowledge about climate aridity in Spain, its recent evolution and its future projection in a context of climate change, as well as to develop information tools that allow its evolution to be monitored in real time.